But the Darkhorses galloped to victory in five of the final six individual bouts, and dealt the Saints a 50-30 defeat inside a sweltering gymnasium. The loss spoiled the head coaching debut for Southern Wayne's Joseph Kincaid, a former two-time state qualifier in North Carolina.

"I think we did really well," said Kincaid. "A lot of the wrestlers have not had much experience, but with what they've learned so far in such a short amount of time, they did really well and worked hard out there."

"In the middle weights, we have a lot of wrestlers from last year and the coach they had last year (Jon Jones) did a great job getting them prepared for this year," said Kincaid.

Jones is the new head coach at Eastern Wayne.

Clinton raced to an 18-0 lead behind pins from Ted Rives (119), Kaleb Sargent (125) and Pablo Meza (130). The Darkhorses eventually posted the initial takedown in six matches and won nine matches overall in the non-conference affair.

Southern Wayne rallied from a 21-6 deficit behind its returning starters and led 24-21 before Clinton's Chris Peterson claimed a third-period fall. The Darkhorses finished the dual match with a 29-6 run.

"The biggest thing we need to work on is understanding how to do some chain wrestling," said Kincaid. "We need to do a move, follow it up with something else ... think ahead of the other guy so we know what they might do and what we can do to beat them."

The Saints return to action Saturday in the Falcon Invitational at Charles B. Aycock. First-round matches begin at 9 a.m.